Today’s Birthday:
Elisha Graves Otis (1811)

By 1852, Otis had already devised several inventions, including a safety brake for trains. While setting up a factory that year, he developed an automatic safety device to prevent heavy machinery from falling if a rope broke while the machinery was being hoisted. The first fail-safe, fall-safe passenger elevator quickly followed. It made possible the construction of skyscrapers, greatly altering the landscape of modern cities. What daring publicity stunt helped launch sales of Otis’s elevators? More…: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tfd.mobile.TfdSearch